The best way to protect aircraft isn't with improved technology such as full body scanners but by profiling and questioning passengers.
Isaac Yeffet, the former head of security for the Israeli airline El Al, says the only way to secure the skies is to employ highly-educated, well-trained agents to question passengers. Forget bomb-sniffing "puffers" or scanners that can see through passengers' clothes. Yeffet said that he has seen many terrorists outsmart airport security over the years, and as technology improves, so do the terrorists' methods.
"We are dealing with a sophisticated enemy who knows how to beat our technology," said Yeffet, who now runs his own firm, Yeffet Security Consultants.
He said that we have learned nothing from our past security breaches, including the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
"Did we learn something?" he said. "We changed from FAA to TSA and guys with new uniforms."
The only group being punished, he said, is the American traveler who must now endure longer lines.
Yeffet said profiling isn't about singling out one ethnic group but about asking intelligent questions.
He told the story of an Irish woman several years ago who flew from London to Israel. She had fallen in love with a man, was pregnant with his baby and was flying there to meet his family. He packed her bags, including a gift for his family. Her suitcase cleared airport security without a problem, Yeffet said, but when El Al agents started to question her as part of their routine checks, something just didn't seem right.
Even though she had nothing to hide, they questioned the situation. An inspection of her luggage found 4 kilograms of explosives -- a bomb, planted by her lover, that airport security scanners had missed. She was so upset that this man would try to use her to kill everybody on the 747 that she gave the police all the information they needed to prosecute.
In another case, a German man was smuggling what he thought were drugs from Zurich to Israel. The luggage went through X-ray scans and nothing was found by airport security, Yeffet said.
In both cases, Yeffet said, the Irish woman and the German man didn't fit the national or ethnic identity of the stereotypical profile of a terrorist wanting to take down an Israeli jet.
When hiring people to do profiling, Yeffet said, they must be qualified staff, "very well educated people" with at least a college education and fluent in English and at least one other language.
"We test them always. Anybody who fails is fired. We have no mercy because we are dealing with lives," Yeffet said. "The problem with the TSA is that they don't have experts, they don't have qualified people."
The Transportation Security Administration did not respond to requests for comment.
Such an increase in security would not only likely add to travelers' time but also cost the government and the flying public millions of dollars. Right now, TSA airport screener salaries start at about $25,000 a year. Hiring the highly-trained college graduates that Yeffet suggests would cost significantly more than that.
But the man lost his composure when asked by El Al agent why – as somebody who lives in Germany -- he purchased his ticket to Israel in Switzerland.
Yeffet said the man was so focused on questions related to drugs that an unexpected question threw him for a loop and tipped them off. The bag didn't have drugs but explosives – and the man turned in the supposed drug dealers.
Yeffet says body scans are more provocative than effective.
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/12/29/video-former-el-al-security-official-explains-common-sense/
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Yeffet, the former El Al security chief, says a system like the Israeli carrier's undoubtedly would cost more. Yet he says it could be run efficiently, noting that El Al operates frequently between New York and Tel Aviv, among other cities. He says the U.S. should attempt a trial program at a medium-sized airport.
CNN: What needs to be done to improve the system?
Yeffet: It's mandatory that every passenger -- I don't care his religion or whatever he is -- every passenger has to be interviewed by security people who are qualified and well-trained, and are being tested all year long. I trained my guys and educated them, that every flight, for them, is the first flight. That every passenger is the first passenger. The fact that you had [safe flights] yesterday and last month means nothing. We are looking for the one who is coming to blow up our aircraft. If you do not look at each passenger, something is wrong with your system.
CNN: What is EL AL's approach to airline security? How does it differ from what's being done in this country?
Yeffett: We must look at the qualifications of the candidate for security jobs. He must be educated. He must speak two languages. He must be trained for a long time, in classrooms. He must receive on-the-job training with a supervisor for weeks to make sure that the guy understands how to approach a passenger, how to convince him to cooperate with him, because the passenger is taking the flight and we are on the ground. The passengers have to understand that the security is doing it for their benefit.
We are constantly in touch with the Israeli intelligence to find out if there are any suspicious passengers among hundreds of passengers coming to take the flight -- by getting the list of passengers for each flight and comparing it with the suspicious list that we have. If one of the passengers is on the list, then we are waiting for him, he will not surprise us.
During the year, we did thousands of tests of our security guys around the world. It cost money, but once you save lives, it's worth all the money that the government gave us to have the right security system.
I used to send a male or female that we trusted. We used to give them tickets and send them to an airport to take a flight to Tel Aviv. We concealed whatever we could in their luggage. Everything was fake, and we wanted to find out if the security people would stop this passenger or not.
If there was any failure, the security people immediately were fired, and we called in all the security people to tell people why they failed, what happened step by step. I wanted everyone to learn from any failure. And if they were very successful, I wanted everyone to know why.
CNN: Let's say all the airlines instituted the system that you're talking about. So let's say I go to an airport for a flight to London. What should happen?
Yeffet: When you come to the check-in, normally you wait on line. While you wait on line, I want you to be with your luggage. You have to meet with me, the security guy. We tell you who we are. We ask for your passport, we ask for your ticket. We check your passport. We want to find which countries you visited. We start to ask questions, and based on your answers and the way you behave, we come to a conclusion about whether you are bona fide or not. That's what should happen.
CNN: Every passenger should be interviewed, on all flights?
Yeffet: Yes, 100 percent...
I want to interview you. It won't take too long if you're bona fide. We never had a delay.
Number two, I have heard so many times El Al is a small airline. We in America are big air carriers. Number one, we have over 400 airports around the country, why hasn't anyone from this government asked himself, let's take one airport out of 400 airports and try to implement El Al's system because their system proved they're the best of the best.
For the last 40 years, El Al did not have a single tragedy. And they came to attack us and to blow up our aircraft, but we knew how to stop them on the ground. So let's try to implement the system at one airport in the country and then come to a conclusion...
CNN: What do you think of using full body scanners?
Yeffet: I am against it, this is once again patch on top of patch. Look what happened, Richard Reid, the shoebomber, hid the explosives in his shoes. The result -- all of us have to take off our shoes when we come to the airport. The Nigerian guy hid his explosives in his underwear. The result -- everyone now will be seen naked. Is this the security system that we want? Full body scanners are nearly useless, and therefore a great waste of money.
We have millions of Muslims in this country. I am not Muslim, but I am very familiar with the tradition, I respect the tradition. Women who walk on the street cover their body from head to toe. Can you imagine the reaction of the husband? Excuse me, wait on the side, we want to see your wife's body naked?... This is not an answer.
I appreciate what the president said, but we need to see the results on the ground at the airports. ... I strongly recommend that TSA call experts ... and not let them leave before they come to conclusions about what must be done at each airport to make sure that we are really pro-active. Let us be alert, let us work together, and show no mercy for any failure, no mercy.
If we do this system, believe me we will show the world that we are the best proactive security system and the terrorists will understand that it's not worth it to come to attack us.
CNN: Would it be more expensive to provide the kind of security system you recommend?
Yeffet: For sure El Al spends more money on security than the American air carriers. But the passengers are willing to pay for it if we can prove to them that they are secure when they come to take a flight. 30 years and not one failure or breach of security.
Unlike the TSA, in order to catch a terrorist, you do not have to become a terrorist.
Yeffet’s recommendation is simple: Start small, and try implementing El Al’s brand of security at at least one major US airport, and see if it is successful. Even without the racial profiling component, interviewing each passenger would still yield crucial information that could help stop a hijacking or bombing. Yeffet says that the goal is to make it so difficult for a terrorist to successfully board an aircraft without getting caught, that they no longer even want to try. Granted, the number of flights around the world that El Al services each day is minuscule compared to the number of flights that take off each day all around the U.S., so it may be too impractical to require all U.S. passengers to arrive at the airport three hours early for all flights, as is El Al’s policy. But the only way to really get serious about airline security is to take a few lessons from the world’s most secure airline.
